Practice 3-31

First off, the OL: Miller looks like he has a vengence out for anyone on the other side from him. Givens also looks set to roll. My best guess for center would be Iltis which means I would say a rough guess of what it could look like would be Givens-Miller-Iltis-?? (Behrens/Tau)-Solder. Not too bad and I dont really know who will fit that other guard position.

RB: Everyone looks fast, DS didnt show any signs of favoring one ankle over another and Speedy looked....well speedy. Lock also has a quick burst, should be a great position this year.

QB: Hansen deffinatly has more zing on the ball which is why after today I would pencil him in as the frontrunner (I know its only one day in but the throws that they were both making side by side were unmistakeable. Hansens ball got there about 1/2 a second or more faster than Codys)

WR: They were doing a drill right in front of me with the jugs (sp?) machine. After every catch JFly would count and said "we are a team, lets see how many we can get, a drop takes it back to zero". He seems to finally realize his position as a leader for the offense being one of the older recievers. Simas will be a threat this year, deep, short, whatever. THAT DUDE CATCHES EVERYTHING and makes it look easy. The only downside to that is now we are a more run based team which in turn could improve the WR's stats.

I wasnt able to see the defense because they were on the opposite end of the field but I did notice that Major is still on the Limited Participation list and Burny seems to be doing fine. He picked Jimmy Smith up in a drill like it was nothing.

JFly was still returning punts and DS was still punting (they had him doing rugby style kicks at one point which was a little odd)

Quite a few more screens (bubble to the WR and HB screens to Speedy and Lock) which adds just one more dimension in our favor since no one seems to know how to stop a bubble screen these days.

First off, the OL: Miller looks like he has a vengence out for anyone on the other side from him. Givens also looks set to roll. My best guess for center would be Iltis which means I would say a rough guess of what it could look like would be Givens-Miller-Iltis-?? (Behrens/Tau)-Solder. Not too bad and I dont really know who will fit that other guard position.

RB: Everyone looks fast, DS didnt show any signs of favoring one ankle over another and Speedy looked....well speedy. Lock also has a quick burst, should be a great position this year.

QB: Hansen deffinatly has more zing on the ball which is why after today I would pencil him in as the frontrunner (I know its only one day in but the throws that they were both making side by side were unmistakeable. Hansens ball got there about 1/2 a second or more faster than Codys)

WR: They were doing a drill right in front of me with the jugs (sp?) machine. After every catch JFly would count and said "we are a team, lets see how many we can get, a drop takes it back to zero". He seems to finally realize his position as a leader for the offense being one of the older recievers. Simas will be a threat this year, deep, short, whatever. THAT DUDE CATCHES EVERYTHING and makes it look easy. The only downside to that is now we are a more run based team which in turn could improve the WR's stats.

I wasnt able to see the defense because they were on the opposite end of the field but I did notice that Major is still on the Limited Participation list and Burny seems to be doing fine. He picked Jimmy Smith up in a drill like it was nothing.

JFly was still returning punts and DS was still punting (they had him doing rugby style kicks at one point which was a little odd)

Quite a few more screens (bubble to the WR and HB screens to Speedy and Lock) which adds just one more dimension in our favor since no one seems to know how to stop a bubble screen these days.

I will try and get a better look at the defense on Thursday

Click to expand...

were you wearing glasses, college aged? i think we were seeing the same thing. fun to be back out there (haha well sorta). i couldnt tell from my angle but was aric making those field goals?

From what I saw, a lot of stuff will be meaningless but interesting IMO

Offense:

They did quite a few end arounds. I saw some shot gun but most was lined up under the center. There wasn't as much of the I, with more of a single back formation. They also had some screens to the RB where both the Guard and the Tackle would pull. The QB's didn't put the camera's on until about half way through practice

QB
Cody Hawkins put the ball in the same spot, every time, right between the eyes. Hansen, then Ballenger were next in terms of accurary IMO, with Cody #1. Cody had a tight spiral but Hansen's had more zing to it. It looked like Ballenger lacked confidance and I witnessed him shake his head multiple times. He under and overthrew recievers quite a bit. A couple drills were to help minimize tipped passes (throwing over goal post)

RB
Lockridge is lightning quick!! Speedy was as well, and Scott seemed pretty fast. Speedy was an angry runner...it was odd seeing him as #5

WR
Simas definitely has a good set of hands. Scotty was consistant as always. Marion Brown showed some athleticism, but needs to work on his hands. J-Fly was FAST, but still thin as a rail (same goes for Blackmon)

TE
Deehan will be a beast. He is HUGE, and really soft hands. He will definitely challenge Geer for the #1 TE IMO. DeVaughn Thornton was in attendance with Hildreth. Yes Loblaw, DeVaughn was there, and they got to go around with their position groups just like they were on the team already

OL
LT-Nate Solder LG- Matt Bahr C-Mike Iltis RG-Ryan Miller (like I said:smile2 RT-Bryce Givens. That is the starting OL from what I saw. They all were HUGE. Eastburn was dwarved by these guys, he's definitely the smallest. Head was definitely a tenacious blocker. It looked like Johnson's trying to get these guys to be maulers. They used less hands and more forearms to shove the blocker off.

Defense
It was hard to tell because they practiced on the opposite side but Rippy is a physical speciman. He looked really athletic, expect him to play a lot this season IMO. Jimmy Smith and Ewing both made some good INT's which got the defense riled up. Didn't see Major and Lagrone Shields didn't practice for some reason. Lynn Katoa was nowhere to be found.

Notes
I'd say around 60 fans attended, with quite a few students (represent). Some former players were in attendance and they got to follow around their former position group around practice. I swear I saw Bieniemy, maybe I was mistaken. It was awesome weather, no idea why they practiced in the bubble. The bubble really hindered some of the drills, with punts consistantly clunking the top. Hawk was working A LOT with special teams. Good to see. I heard him say "If you don't get this right you owe me a candy bar!!!" I thought that was funny. Cody led the team in sprints (which btw it doesn't seem like they take them too seriously). 2010 in-state recruit Josiah Flack was in attendance. It was a pretty spirited practice, and no serious injuries!!! The only one I saw was Paul Vigo with a minor leg injury, who btw has good upper body strength but needs to work on the lower body strength...a lot. That's all I remember, i'll post more if i rememer. Good to see some football. The bubble was bigger than I thought, and the grass is like carpet and gets everywhere. I better get some rep out of this, that took forever to write Go Buffs!!!

From what I saw, a lot of stuff will be meaningless but interesting IMO

Offense:

They did quite a few end arounds. I saw some shot gun but most was lined up under the center. There wasn't as much of the I, with more of a single back formation. They also had some screens to the RB where both the Guard and the Tackle would pull. The QB's didn't put the camera's on until about half way through practice

QB
Cody Hawkins put the ball in the same spot, every time, right between the eyes. Hansen, then Ballenger were next in terms of accurary IMO, with Cody #1. Cody had a tight spiral but Hansen's had more zing to it. It looked like Ballenger lacked confidance and I witnessed him shake his head multiple times. He under and overthrew recievers quite a bit. A couple drills were to help minimize tipped passes (throwing over goal post)

RB
Lockridge is lightning quick!! Speedy was as well, and Scott seemed pretty fast. Speedy was an angry runner...it was odd seeing him as #5

WR
Simas definitely has a good set of hands. Scotty was consistant as always. Marion Brown showed some athleticism, but needs to work on his hands. J-Fly was FAST, but still thin as a rail (same goes for Blackmon)

TE
Deehan will be a beast. He is HUGE, and really soft hands. He will definitely challenge Geer for the #1 TE IMO. DeVaughn Thornton was in attendance with Hildreth.

Defense
It was hard to tell because they practiced on the opposite side but Rippy is a physical speciman. He looked really athletic, expect him to play a lot this season IMO. Jimmy Smith and Ewing both made some good INT's which got the defense riled up.

NotesI'd say around 60 fans attended, with quite a few students (represent). Some former players were in attendance and they got to follow around their former position group around practice. I swear I saw Bieniemy, maybe I was mistaken. It was awesome weather, no idea why they practiced in the bubble. The bubble really hindered some of the drills, with punts consistantly clunking the top. Hawk was working A LOT with special teams. Good to see. I heard him say "If you don't get this right you owe me a candy bar!!!" I thought that was funny. Cody led the team in sprints (which btw it doesn't seem like they take them too seriously). 2010 in-state recruit Josiah Flack was in attendance. It was a pretty spirited practice, and no serious injuries!!! The only one I saw was Paul Vigo with a minor leg injury, who btw has good upper body strength but needs to work on the lower body strength...a lot. That's all I remember, i'll post more if i rememer. Good to see some football. I better get some rep out of this, that took forever to write Go Buffs!!!

Oh one more thing keep in mind it was all no pads. I saw a couple tackles tho. And you can definitely hear Johnson's southern drawl. Nothing more, just wanted to BUMP to teh top:smile2:

Edit: I'll add something more i suppose...The best part was when they had a WR one on one with a CB. Whoever caught the ball, the opposite team had to run (offense, defense). Jimmy Smith went up and snagged the ball causing the whole defense to start cheering loudly and they rushed over to him. Jimmy threw the ball up in celebration, Hansen picked it up and ran for the end zone, with the entire offense cheering and running with him. Pretty funny IMO, I couldn't help but crack a smile.:gobuffs: